Ignitis, a Lithuanian energy group active in the Baltic countries and Poland announced that it is planning to invest up to 950 million euros in increasing its green energy capacities by the year 2023.
Ignitis Group is active in the generation, distribution and sale of energy and development of energy solutions. The company’s operating renewables assets include two hydroelectric power plants in Lithuania, four wind farms in Lithuania and Estonia and a biomass-fueled station in Lithuania.
In its recently published strategy document, the energy holding calls for an increase in green energy capacity from the present 1.1 gigawatts (GW) to 1.6-1.8 GW by 2023, aiming to become the leading regional platform to drive sustainable growth.
According to the updated long-term strategy, the company will raise its generating capacity based on resources of renewable energy to 4 GW by 2030. The investments will be made in wind, solar, hydro, waste and biomass powered plants and other green energy solutions in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The Lithuanian state energy group is building a waste-to-energy plant in Vilnius, and a similar facility in Kaunas jointly with Fortum Heat Lietuva as well as a wind farm in the northwestern Lithuanian district of Mazeikiai.
Earlier this year the European Investment Bank (EIB) confirmed to lend around 60 million euros for the first wind project of Igintis in Poland, which includes construction and operation of a medium-sized onshore wind farm, consisting of 29 turbines, with a total installed capacity of 94 megawatts (MW). Works have already started in July last year, and the project is expected to be operational in the spring of 2021 with an expected capacity of 300 GWh of electricity.
The strategic document notes that the core markets of Ignitis offer significant growth potential. Only 28 per cent of electricity consumption covered by national generation in Lithuania, which combined with the phase-out of oil shale power generation capacities in Estonia, increase the necessity for the Baltic States to develop new domestic energy generation assets.
In Poland, coal generation is expected to see a gradual decline and be replaced by renewable energy technologies. Additionally, both Poland and Baltic states have adopted energy policies supporting extensive buildout of renewable generation capacities in the framework of their climate strategies.
The new strategy also calls for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, through the reduction of the company’s operational emissions (Scope 1) in line with the expansion of green generation, the reduction of energy consumption (Scope 2) and supply chain emissions (Scope 3).
